What do you call it when the musician that heals you happens to serenade you in front of a Los Angeles crowd, upwards of during a summer music festival? Instant Karma? These were also the words typed on the T-shirt of the musician, Frank Ocean, who at FYF Fest, serenaded Brad Pitt, the actor who expressed experiencing healing from the singer’s music. FYF Fest is a Los Angeles Music Festival which in its formative years, first staged its three-day weekend festival at The Echo, EchoPlex, Rec Center, including Taix. Then, in 2009 it moved to L.A. State Historic Park until 2013, finding a home the following year at LA Sports Arena and Exposition Park where its been since.

The line-up of music has remained on the cultural epicenter of current, indie and one of discovery, showcasing acts, off the indie music beaten path. Gotta’ love a festival for that, right? The food line up was equally stellar with FYF Fest bringing Locol, the healthy fast food mission for the neighborhood, in truck form, to the LAWN Stage alongside performances by Run The Jewels, Anderson Paak Flying Lotus and more. Day Pass $115, Black Coffee $1. Priceless.

@droc2pus, instagram

TWO:

coasting

@stumptown, instagram

Road trips seemed to be born for the summer. This past weekend the slogan and print driven [coffee+kitchen] brand Alfred Coffee, joined Stumptown’s High Road Tour, a 1966 Ford Econoline led journey down California’s Pacific Coast Hour fueled by Cold Brew across “surf shops, drive throughs, parking lots” and grand openings in Beverly Hills.

@alfredcoffee, instagram

Alfred has entered specialty coffee culturing inspiring the public with a logo that urges but first, coffee and a healthy fixation on the cross pollination of the arts and coffee culture. Can I get just anyone of those wallpapers, please?

Significantly, the opening, and the tour’s destination of Beverly Hills, make the small town now home to three specialty coffee shops including Aharon Coffee (Sept, 2014) and Blue Bottle Coffee. Looks like these hills are coming alive!

THREE

read a book

What We Lose

A debut novel named, What We Lose (July 11) written by Zinzi Clemmons, is a creative non-fiction work with the feel of prose by travelogue. Clemmons documents Thandi, “the daughter of a New York–born mathematics-professor father and Johannesburg-born-nurse mother.” During this multi-story format novel, Thandi returns to South Africa; curates images of her family in photographs and data driven documents; loses her mother and gets advice on things to quit, including caffeine. The last bit of advice remains on the fence but adding this book to your next queue of summer reads shouldn’t. Lose yourself!